Mary Stuart, the Catholic Queen of Scotland, has fled from her people, who accuse her of murdering her husband. In England, she hopes to obtain political asylum from her cousin, the Protestant Queen Elizabeth. At the same time, however, she lays claim to the crown, as she considers herself to be its rightful heir. She is captured and imprisoned, and rescue attempts by young liberators fail. But Mary’s brilliance shines on from her dungeon: she knows she can count on her dedicated supporters and the loyalty of France. After several thwarted attempts to assassinate Queen Elizabeth, for which Mary is blamed, she is sentenced to execution. Opinions differ among Elizabeth’s advisors, and an attempt at reconciliation in the form of a meeting between the two queens fails spectacularly. Nevertheless, Elizabeth hesitates to sign the death sentence and fears that the outcome will be a duel without a victor.

Friedrich Schiller’s Maria Stuart is an intrigue involving politics, religion, love and power – a web in which all its characters are inescapably caught. It paints a tableau of powerful people shunning responsibility and choking on their positions. And he shows them as deeply human characters who, through their action or non-action, are continually thrown back on themselves – lonely, isolated and unfree. As Sartre says: "Man is condemned to freedom. Because once he is thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does."